MIAMI, FL -- Just days after two teen girls were rescued from the child sex industry in Tampa, we are learning how serious the problem of human trafficking has become in Florida.
For the first time ever, Florida's law enforcement and social service agencies are meeting with Federal officials in a human trafficking summit.
Florida is considered one of the three leading states for trafficking modern day slaves. An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are brought into the United States each year and forced into virtual slavery according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country each year is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry.
In Tampa, over the past weekend, the FBI and Hillsborough deputies helped rescue 16 and 17-year-old girls who were forced into prostitution.
The goal of the summit, which is sponsored by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) is to examine the scope of the human trafficking problem in Florida and to recommend strategies and actions for eliminating the unlawful trafficking of humans in Florida.
"Traffickers are selling women and children on our cities’ streets, they are forcing large numbers of victims to work in our fields and our factories and they are enslaving workers in the very hotels we stay in, "DCF Secretary George Sheldon said in a prepared statement. "It is happening in front of our eyes."
